But Daddy, I dont want to go to bed yet.
Yes, sweetie, but its bedtime, and if you go to bed now, Ill tell you a fairy tale.
OK Daddy, what kind of story are you going to tell me?
Well, honey, once upon a time there was a very small, but very hot and very heavy ball of matter. Then there was a big bang and it exploded at the speed of light and formed everything in the universe.
You mean it formed all the stars and planets and even trees and us? Howd it do that?
Well, the hot gases formed the sun and stars, and when some cooled down they turned into planets.
What are the stars made of?
Very light gas like hydrogen and helium. You know, the stuff they put in balloons to make them float? All of the other elements formed from them.
But the planets are made out of heavier stuff that doesnt float, right? Howd the light gas turn into the heavier stuff? And how did we get the water and trees and grass and birds and people? Theyre not made of that gas, are they?
No, you have to have heavier stuff like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen too, which the gases eventually turned into.
So how did the gas turn into the heavier, solid stuff? Through stuff like the triple-alpha process, in which helium can turn into carbon, one of the elements that all the living things on earth are made from. I gotta tell you though, the odds of this happening make the odds of winning the lottery look like a sure thing. But given enough time
Then why arent the stars and the sun still turning into the heavier stuff that makes people and other things?
I dont know honey. I guess it just happened once upon a time. Theres no reason.
So the carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen got together and decided to be a girl like me?
No, sweetie, they formed a very simple form of life, like a cell, and it eventually got more complicated over millions of years until it grew into a girl like you. A cell may be small, but it is just a miniature version of you. It has a DNA, a power plant, a transportation system, a semi-permeable membrane, and a way to process food. Its very complex, just like you.
Whats a DNA?
Well, thats the most important thing for life. Its like a protein chain of amino acids that contains all of the information about you. You cant have life without this protein chain, and all of the amino acids have to be the right type and in the right order or it wont happen. But dont worry. The very first DNA was a very simple chain that only required one chance in 200 billion billion to have gotten itself in the right order.
Thats a big number isnt it?
Yes, honey, way bigger than the number of grains of sand on the earth, but with enough time, it just happened, and there was the first DNA.
But that was only one of the many things the first cell had to have to be alive. Where did the rest of the stuff in the cell come from?
Well, I guess it just collected together from the stuff that was laying around near it. And the temperature was just right, and there was just the right amount of food and oxygen nearby, so that all of the other stuff the cell needed just came together.
Wow. That first cell was sure lucky. It overcame impossible odds just to form carbon, and then more impossible odds to form a protein, and then all the other stuff it needed just appeared and came together like a giant jigsaw puzzle to make everything work."
Thats right, sweetie. We sure were fortunate to have such an incredible series of miraculous accidents happen to that first cell, or we wouldnt be here.
Isnt that kind of like all of the parts in a junkyard suddenly forming a race car all by itself?
Uh, yeah. Actually, the junk yard thing happening is WAY more likely to happen than what really happened.
So when the cell got all its parts, how did it come alive? And whats the difference between being a live cell and a dead cell?
Well, a dead cell would just lay there, but a live cell would start to do things like ingesting food and breathing oxygen and traveling.
Why did it start just doing all those things? Why didnt it just lay there with all its parts? Was it like the story of Pinocchio, where a wood puppet came alive by magic?
Umh yes, it must have been something like that because well, think of the junkyard thing. Its a real long shot.
So once it began to live, how did it make another cell?
I dont know honey. It just happened, theres no reason.
And when it got big enough, how did it turn into other types of cells? And how did we get all the different plants and animals? Was the first cell a fish or a bird or a girl or a tree? And how did all the trees and grass and birds and fish and boys and girls all come from the same cell? And how did it make other boy and girl cells? And how did
I dont know honey, it just happened. Theres no reason. All of this stuff takes lots of time, but thats how we got here.
Daaaddeee! Thats not a true story.
Thats why they call it a fairy tale Dear.
So, what really happened? If that was a fairy tale, tell me the truth. Even I know all that stuff just couldnt happen by accident.
Youre probably right, sweetheart. It does seem hard to believe.
So if it didnt happen by accident, then somebody must have made it happen, right?
Well, yeah, I guess so.
So why do you think He made all this stuff? What do you think He wants?
Daddy?
. Daddy?
good stuff! Couldn’t agree more hardily. Here in GA a legislator(MD at that) was scoffed at because he told a church audience that billions of years and evolution was a big lie. I’ve recently read some scholarly books on the whole uniformitarian cult and someday the dike will break. They have so many problems with their godless fairy tales. But in academia your future and reputation depend on going along with the lastest evolutionary drivel!
/johnny
lol....absolutely ridiculous.
The theory of evolution does not try to explain the origin of life.
I’m holding out for the “Calvin’s Dad” explanation. No, not that Calvin, I mean the comic-strip Calvin by Watterson.
****the theory of evolution enjoys near-sacred politically correct status. It is not to be questioned. Those who do so will be scorned by the establishment as uneducated zealots, marginalized as pariahs in the world of political discourse, and relegated to the trash heap of those who tell fairy tales. So why not tell our own fairy tale ****
Sounds like the premise of the book THE BONE PEDDLERS by William Fix.